


5 Years

by sherstrader



Category: Big Brother RPF
Genre: Cheating, Developing Relationship, M/M, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-25
Updated: 2014-11-01
Packaged: 2018-02-22 14:46:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2511488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sherstrader/pseuds/sherstrader
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What will happen when Frankie bumps into Zach and his boyfriend 5 years after they stopped speaking?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Frankie clapped and cheered excitedly as the last few notes of Voulez-Vous played out into the crowd and the curtain slowly closed, he had been invited back to see Mamma-Mia to celebrate 10 years from his first performance on the show. He was loving every second. “Oh my god it feels so good to be back!” He turned to some of the other ex-cast members who were all agreeing, “I’m going to the bar, does anybody want a drink?” He took a couple of orders and navigated out of the seats and up the stairs to the doors. They had been given such good seats with a perfect view of the stage. The theatre was beautiful, it was decked out in red carpets and ebony banisters; he had forgotten how much time he had enjoyed spending time here. The show had been incredible so far, he had surprised himself by still knowing the lyrics to every song.

Once into the lobby he remembered where the bar was and walked around the corner, quickly finding it and managing to squeeze to the front of the energetic crowd, he placed the orders for his, and two other drinks that his friends had asked him to get and then leant on his side against the bar and waited for the drinks to arrive. There was a buzz in the air, Frankie had missed the theatre. Suddenly someone squeezed in behind him, ordering two drinks and talking excitedly about the show. Frankie instantly placed the voice and turned cautiously. It took a second for him to recognise the person as they seemed to have grown a large beard and worked out a lot since he had last met them.

“Uh… Hi Zach.” Frankie spoke, hoping to get his attention. Zach stopped speaking and turned, looking surprised.

“Oh my god! Frankie? How’re you doing bro? What the hell are you doing here?”

“I should really be asking you that question!” Frankie joked, “You didn’t even know that Mamma-Mia was a musical when I first met you.” The bartender handed over Frankie’s drinks and change.

Zach laughed, “I know, I was terrible. We were in town so I thought I’d see what all the fuss was about. I love it!” Frankie couldn’t believe how much he had changed, not only in looks. Zach received his drinks, they walked away from the bar. “Oh by the way, this is my boyfriend David.” He gestured to a shorter, young man next to him, passing him a drink. Frankie tried to contain the shock on his face but knew he was doing a bad job. He would have thought David was under the age of 20 if not for the fact he was drinking alcohol, he looked so young, he was obviously a twink. He also looked kind of pissed off.

“Hi! I’m Frankie” Frankie tried to get off to a good start despite the bad vibes he was getting. “I’d shake your hand but…” he gestured down to the 3 drinks in his hands. 

“Hi, don’t worry about it.” David pursed his lips. There was a pause.

“So…how long have you been together?” Frankie asked, forcing a smile through the awkwardness and looking back towards Zach.

“Just over a year, we’re actually in New York to celebrate it.” Zach smiled and put an arm around David, eliciting a small smile from David. “David, you remember I told you about Frankie, from Big Brother.”

“Yep, I remember.” David looked pointedly at Zach, “Can we go back to our seats, I’m bored.”

“Ah yeah, one sec, god Frankie it’s been so good to see you again! What’s it been? 5 Years?” 

“Yeah about that long!” Frankie was cringing every second that David glared at him.

“Let’s exchange numbers, we could meet up sometime during the week. Catch up and get coffee or something.” Frankie nodded and they exchanged numbers. David started slowly edging towards the theatre door. “Cya soon!” Zach rushed and walked quickly to where David had edged to, Frankie saw him link their hands together and kiss the top of David’s head.

“Cya.” Frankie whispered before downing his double vodka and coke, he leant against the wall. He couldn’t believe Zach was in a relationship with a man, after everything they had gone through together. The last time he had seen Zach, Zach had told them that no matter how they felt about each other nothing would come from it. He said he would always choose his family over Frankie. He had kissed Frankie and left, and they hadn’t spoken or seen each other since. Frankie had ignored all of Zach’s social media in an attempt to get over him, which is probably why this had come as such a surprise. He had imagined that by now Zach would have been in a long term relationship, but he thought it would have been with a girl; somehow this had felt like an even bigger slap in the face. 

Frankie had so many questions to ask Zach, for starters how did his family feel about the relationship? Frankie bit his lip remembering the levels Zach’s Mom had gone to to keep them apart five years ago.

Upon hearing the announcement that the show would be starting again soon, Frankie walked back towards the theatre entrance, found his seat and handed his two friends their drinks, not mentioning what had just happened at the bar. For five minutes until the show started he was on his phone, for the first time in so long he was on Zach’s Instagram, seeing photo after photo of him and David together. David had seemed so distant and unkind when Frankie had met him, Frankie couldn’t tell whether that was just his personality or because David knew all about the him and Zach’s past and Zankie. He hoped the later was true, for Zach’s sake. The curtain opened and the show resumed, Frankie sat back in his seat, hoping to be distracted by the bright lights and sparkly costumes.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm spoiling ya'll with two chapters in one day because I'm going away this week.  
> Please leave kudos or a comment if you enjoyed!

The show had been fantastic and had done its best to distract Frankie from his coincidental, awkward meeting with Zach and his boyfriend. He had hung out with the cast after the show finished and they had all got a little drunk and partied a little too much and he had kissed a few too many people considering he’s a 36 year old man. He had fallen into bed that night and slept like a log.

 

A loud bleeping from his phone awoke him from his slumber, checking the clock it was almost midday. Frankie sighed and sat up, grabbing his phone from his night stand and reading and responding to a text from his Mom. He then went on to check his social media accounts, the first one being Instagram. When he opened it he was surprised to see that the last page he was looking at was a photo of Zach’s. The memories from last night quickly flooded back and he remembered exchanging numbers and promising to meet up with the man that had broken his heart 5 years ago. He clutched his aching, hung-over head in his hands and quickly typed out a text to Zach.

 

_Hi Zach, it’s Frankie, I’m pretty busy this week but I can do this afternoon :)_

He lied about being busy, he just didn’t really want to go. He was kind of worried that David would come along. Remembering the sight of David glaring at Frankie was haunting him. He got out of bed and got ready for the day, brushing his teeth and putting on some of his favourite jeans and a brightly coloured tank top. After about 10 minutes he heard his text alert from his phone still on the nightstand, he walked back into the room and checked the text, unsurprisingly it was a reply from Zach; he was never one to reply slowly.

 

_Hey Frankie! Lucky for you I am completely free this afternoon, where do u wanna meet?_

_Which hotel are you at?_ Frankie typed quickly, hoping to get the planning out of the way so that he could get on with his day, he really wasn’t looking forward to this. He received a reply about a minute later, telling the address and room number of Zach’s hotel. _Ok I’ll be there at around 2pm, cya!_ He put down his phone into his back pocket, quickly realising he therefor had less than an hour and a half till he had to leave his apartment.

 

He rushed around and managed to do all of the chores he had to do and ate some lunch all before 1.30pm, he couldn’t shake the nervous feeling in his stomach. It had been so long since he’d even seen Zach. And Zach looked so different! Frankie remembered his toned arms and well groomed beard, completely different to the slightly chubby frat boy Frankie remembered from Big Brother. Frankie’s mind started wandering to how toned the rest of Zach’s body would be but he quickly snapped back. He reminded himself thoroughly that they were meeting to catch up and that Zach had a boyfriend. He set off on the 20 minute journey to Zach’s hotel, catching the subway.

 

Once he got there he quickly dropped Zach a text that he was stood in the lobby, the hotel looked nice. Zach was obviously doing well for himself to be able to stay in a place like this. A few minutes later Zach stepped out of the elevator alone. Frankie silently celebrated the fact that David wouldn’t be having coffee with them.

 

“Hey!” Zach smiled widely and pulled Frankie into an unexpected hug.

 

“Hi!” Frankie returned the hug, mentally noting how firm Zach’s chest felt, he continued once Zach had released him, “isn’t David joining us?”

 

“Oh, nah, he’s gone shopping.” It might have just been Frankie’s mind but Zach looked visibly less cheerful at the mention of David, “With my credit card” Zach added , trying to laugh it off.

 

“Oh!” Frankie pressed his lips together, “Where do you wanna go for coffee then? I noticed a café down the street?”

 

“Sounds good to me!” They walked to the café, talking about things that Zach had done in New York so far. Once there they got their drinks and sat down at a secluded table. Frankie couldn’t help but stare at Zach’s beard.

 

“So, the elephant in the room, you got a beard?” Frankie laughed.

 

“I know, I’m the worst! I just love having it, you know?”

 

Frankie nodded, “Did you grow it for David?” he teased.

 

“What, no! David hates it.” Zach rolled his eyes and looked out of the window.

 

“Got to say I was surprised when you introduced me to a boyfriend, but I’m happy for you. What does your Mom think? How’s she doing?”

 

“She’s doing well; they’re focussed on Peyton at the moment. His golf career is taking off.” Zach smiled proudly. “My Mom wasn’t over the moon when I introduced David, but I think she’s secretly just glad that it wasn’t you. They expected that it would happen someday.” Frankie nodded as Zach spoke. “I dated a few girls after everything happened, but after a couple of years of awkward dates I had a one night stand with a random guy and quickly realised what I’d been denying myself of.” Frankie nodded in understanding.

 

“David seemed really nice when I met him last night” He lied.

 

Zach snorted. “No he didn’t! He seemed stuck up and judgemental.”

 

“Yeah, kind of.” Franke admitted.

 

“When I first met him I thought he was so amazing, and I love him but… I dunno. I think he’s too young for me. I thought this trip would help us reconnect but all he’s really done is spend my money.” Zach trailed off and sighed.

 

Frankie reached out to Zach’s hand on the other side of the table and patted it. In a friendly way, nothing more. He attempted to change the conversation. “What are you doing at the moment? Are you working?”

 

“Yeah, I’m an accountant in Orlando.  It pays well but it’s dull compared to being on TV”

 

“Yeah, well anything is really!” Frankie smiled trying to lighten the mood.

 

“I’ve missed you a lot, you know. I thought about you so many times over the last five years and thought about messaging you but I didn’t want to make you hate me any more that you already did.” Zach held onto Frankie's hand and paused before asking. “Are you seeing anyone at the moment?”

 

Frankie was thrown off by the question and had to try and fight the achy butterfly feeling in his stomach to no avail. “Um, no I’m not seeing anyone. I missed you a lot too.”

 

Zach took a deep breath,“I’m so sorry for the way I treated you, I’m sorry for putting you through my shit. I was so scared of being who I was that I pushed you away. It’s one of my biggest regrets in life.” He looked like the was about to cry.

 

“Don’t worry Zach, it’s fine. I forgave you a long time ago.”

 

Zach nodded and they changed the topic, finishing off their drinks happily, both of them were glad that they had discussed the things that had been looming over them for so long. They left the café and walked back to Zach’s hotel. Once there Zach turned to him and just as Frankie thought he was about to be hugged goodbye Zach paused and looked at his watch.

 

“Do you wanna come up for a bit? I’m free for the whole afternoon, you still haven’t told me what Ari’s been up to!”

 

“Are you sure? Wont David-“ Zach cut Frankie off.

 

“Screw David, come on Frankiee!” He pretended to start pulling Frankie by the arm towards the lobby door.

 

“Fine!” Frankie giggled and allowed himself to be pulled into the hotel.


	3. Chapter 3

“This is such a beautiful room!” Frankie exclaimed as Zach led him into his hotel suite.

“I know, it cost a fortune.” Zach sighed, taking off his shoes. Frankie laughed remembering how much Zach hated spending his money, he guessed that hadn’t changed. “Why are you laughing?” Zach smiled and sat down cross legged on the huge bed.

“Nothing” Frankie smiled and stood awkwardly, not knowing whether he should join Zach on the bed. Zach noticed this.

“The chairs are expensive and uncomfortable, if you don’t wanna permanently damage your back the bed is the only place to sit!” He beckoned Frankie over and Frankie took off his shoes before following. “So how’s Ari been doing? It’s hard not to know everything she’s been up to just by turning on the radio!”

“She’s been good, she’s doing well. Very busy though. Just got back from her honeymoon actually” Frankie smiled to himself, looking down at his hands. I still felt slightly weird how his little sister got married before him. He had always thought it would be him first, due to their 10 year age difference. “The wedding was beautiful, did you see her dress?”

“It was only on every magazine cover in the world!”

“Yeah, she’s doing well. She’s very happy. Working on a new album, too.” 

Zach nodded, “I heard! Every time I saw something about the wedding I just kept thinking, if things were different I probably would have been going with you.” Frankie met his gaze and they were both thinking the same thing, if things were different it probably could have been their wedding first.

“You said earlier that you regretted how you handled the situation, but…” Frankie paused before breaching a risky topic “do you regret the choice you made?”

“The choice to-?” 

“To choose your family over me.” Frankie clarified.

Zach took a moment to respond before meeting Frankie's gaze, he looked emotional. “Every day. I regretted it every day since it happened.” Frankie felt lightheaded. “Even when I met David I kept comparing him to you in my head.” Frankie scooted closer to him and put an arm around him.

“You should have told me.” 

“I couldn’t let myself cause you any more pain and confusion than I already did.” Zach frowned. “Plus whenever I went on your Instagram you had cute photos with a guy and I thought you were seeing him. I didn’t wanna fuck that up.”

“I was, I had an open relationship with a guy called Michael for a few years until about 6 months ago. He moved to Australia so we called it off.” 

“Oh, I’m sorry about that.” Zach bit his lip.

“Don’t worry about it, it was never that serious, we were more like close friends who had sex and lived together.” Frankie laughed. “My condo does seem kind of big now though. And I keep buying too much milk.” Zach giggled. Frankie attempted to take his arm off Zach because the mood had been lightened but instead Zach pulled him into a cuddle which Frankie didn’t expect. It had been a long time since they had cuddled in a bed.

“Do you remember when we used to spend hours on end just cuddling and talking game in the HOH room?” Zach asked, muffled against Frankie's shoulder. 

“There wasn’t a lot else to do in that goddamn house!”

They both laughed and it fell to a comfortable silence, Frankie closed his eyes and let himself cuddle Zach back. He had been resisting Zach’s possible advances for the entire afternoon but this was too much. Zach had broken his heart all those years ago but he had apologised so sincerely earlier it was difficult to let it stand between them. He had always been Frankie’s weak spot. David was another thing standing between them but their relationship seemed on the rocks and Zach was so, so attractive. It’s not like anything would happen between them, Zach wouldn’t do that-

Out of the blue Zach shifted so that he was on top of Frankie, he opened his eyes to look up and see Zach looking from his eyes down to his lips. He expected it due to the tension in the room but soon felt Zach’s lips softly against his, and he didn’t hesitate before kissing back. It had been so long since they last kissed but every wasted moment felt worth it. He could feel Zach’s beard tickling his chin and slowly brought his hands up to entwine in Zach’s hair. He didn’t know how long they stayed like this, slowly the kisses had got deeper and less controlled as they both got more into it. 

He heard a click from the side of the room but thought no more of it until a few seconds later they were pulled from their bubble “What the fuck!?” A familiar voice shrieked.

Zach jumped up first immediately recognising the voice. “David!”

Frankie covered his face with his hand before pulling it away to see David stood a few metres from the bed, holding shopping bags and a cup holder with two Starbucks cups in. He looked shocked. Which was fair enough.

“What the fuck is this.” David repeated. Zach tried to respond but stuttered. An extremely awkward silence hung in the room.

Frankie sat up and started getting off the bed. “I’ll go.” He said quietly.

“No, don’t worry yourself, I’ll go.” David said, moving towards the wardrobe and grabbing his suitcase, shoving a few items of clothing in it and finding his passport. He shot Zach a look on the way out the door “I thought you liked twinks, Zach. Have fun with your beloved middle aged man with a bad bleach job.” He slammed the door behind him. Zach kneeled on the bed for a few seconds before running after him and out the door. Frankie could hear him shout David’s name as he ran down the corridor. He didn’t know what to do, he felt sick to his stomach. What had just happened? After getting his wits about him he decided he had to leave, and quick. He started putting his shoes back on but before they were both on he heard a knock on the hotel room door. He walked over to it and opened it to let in a distraught looking Zach. 

“I forgot my keycard.” Frankie noticed his red blotchy face and couldn’t resist hugging him tightly.

“I’m so sorry, I knew I should never have met with you today, I’m so sorry I ruined everything!” Frankie felt like he was going to cry too.

Zach pulled away. “It was already basically over, we barely even sleep together any more, it’s just hard to end things after a whole year, you know?” he wiped his face with his hand. “It’s for the best,” he nodded to himself.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Zach looked around, “look at this stupid hotel room I got to make things with me and David right again. It was obviously not going to work. He took both of our return plane tickets with him too.” He shook his head. 

Frankie thought for a moment before deciding to cheer Zach up, “come on, pack your bag.” 

“Why?” 

“You can’t stay in this massive hotel room by yourself for the rest of the week! Come and stay at my place” He smiled.

“You sure?” Zach's sad face quickly turned into the excited grin Frankie knew so well.

“Of course. Come on!”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked this! Please let me know if you enjoyed!  
> My tumblr is zach-rancee.tumblr.com and i follow back :)


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